Conventional administration of drugs is limited by poor water solubility, low permeability, and mediocre targeting. Safe and effective delivery of drugs and therapeutic agents remains a challenge, especially for complex therapies, such as cancer treatment, pain management, heart failure medication, among several others. Thus, delivery systems designed to improve the pharmacokinetics of loaded molecules, and allowing controlled release and target specific delivery, have received considerable attention in recent years. The last two decades have seen a growing interest among scientists and the pharmaceutical industry in mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as drug delivery systems (DDS). This interest is due to the unique physicochemical properties, including high loading capacity, excellent biocompatibility, and easy functionalization. In this review, we discuss the current state of the art related to the preparation of drug-loaded MSNs and their analysis, focusing on the newest advancements, and highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of different methods. Finally, we provide a concise outlook for the remaining challenges in the field.

1D and 2D Very Fast Magic Angle Spinning (VF MAS) NMR experiments with sample rotation up to 55 kHz were applied to study both the dihydrate form of Tyr–(D)Ala–Phe–Gly (N-terminal sequence of opioid peptide dermorphin) and the anhydrous form, which was obtained by thermal treatment. Employing both homo-nuclear (¹H–¹H BABA, ¹³C–¹³C SHANGHAI) and hetero-nuclear 2D correlations (¹H–¹³C and ¹H–¹⁵N) with inverse detection, it was shown that removing water from the crystal lattice of this tetrapeptide does not destroy its subtle pseudo-cyclic structure, and its supramolecular array is preserved. The GIPAW method was employed to compute the geometry of the peptides and calculate the ¹³C σ_ii principal elements of the NMR shielding tensor parameters and ¹H isotropic NMR shifts. The theoretical values of ¹³C σ_ii were compared with the experimental ¹³C δ_ii chemical shift tensor values obtained by a 2D PASS experiment. The correlations ¹³C σ_ii versus δ_ii and ¹H σ_iso versus δ_iso were used to evaluate the quality of the computational approach. With the new set of coordinates obtained by the GIPAW method, the crystal and molecular structure of the dehydrated Tyr–(D)Ala–Phe–Gly peptide that was obtained by thermal treatment was constructed. Methodology used in this project combining NMR measurements, analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data and advanced quantum mechanical calculations is known as NMR crystallography.

Understanding and controlling chirality in peptide systems is essential for the design of advanced biomaterials with tailored properties for applications in nanotechnology, medicine, and tissue engineering.

Yeast capsules (YCs) produced from Saccharomyces cerevisiae with encapsulated fluorescent phenosafranin and azure dyes were used as catalytic template guides for developing hybrid functional organic/inorganic hollow microstructures with silica (SiO₂) deposited on their surface generated in the imidazole-buffered system without the addition of any cationic surfactant. YCs-doped with SiO₂ act as fluorescence emitters maintaining dye-loaded materials by sealing the microporous surface of YCs. We used vinyltrimethoxysilane as a precursor of SiO₂ endowed with functional vinyl groups facilitating their further modification without disturbing the polysaccharide wall integrity. Consequently, the hybrid fluorescent polysaccharide/silica microcapsules (YC@dye@SiO₂) are promising for wide-ranging optoelectronic applications in electrochromic and OLED devices with biocompatibility and biodegradability properties.